Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2010. The bill amends the funding tables in the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 to include the additional $10.93 million allocated to the Sporting Chance program announced in the 2009-10 budget. There is no additional appropriation in this bill; it simply transfers $10.93 million from Appropriations Act (No. 1) to the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 from 1 January 2010.

The Sporting Chance program is an initiative of the previous, coalition government, originally announced in the 2006-07 budget. The initial commitment was for $19.6 million over four years to 30 June 2010 to establish 20 sporting academies. This initiative was inspired by the Clontarf Foundation Football Academy, Western Australia, which was established in January 2000, and which my colleague the member for Canning has had so much to do with and has been so supportive of. In passing, I might say that the member for Canning has been praised not only by the opposition side of the House, as one might expect, but also by the parliamentary secretary, for his work with the Clontarf Foundation Football Academy and the great support he has given them.

I note that in December 2008, as part of the Rudd government’s Closing the Gap strategy to address Indigenous disadvantage, the government provided a further $10 million over four years to expand the former coalition government’s program. This continued support is a testimony to the success of the program. It is one initiative actually achieving its desired outcomes in engaging Indigenous boys and girls in school through involvement with sport.

The Sporting Chance program is delivering positive results for Indigenous students, particularly from remote and rural areas of Australia. I am pleased to note that the results collected in 2009 indicate attendance rates are starting to climb and are, on average, better than attendance rates for Indigenous students not involved in the program. What is equally pleasing to note is that more than half of the academy students were reported by the schools to be improving their academic performance and many were also reported to have made significant gains with respect to behaviour and self-esteem.

Without education, trying to excel in life on the whole, and obtain employment in Australia, is very difficult. It is a given that we must provide every Australian the best educational opportunities we can, but it is particularly important for young Indigenous people. No matter where you look around the globe, education remains the fundamental means to improving living standards and decreasing poverty. I cannot stand here today and say that I am proud when I read statistics which show Indigenous life expectancy in this country remains lower than average life expectancy in Australia. It is an issue we all remain concerned about and I know that those on both sides of the House would like to improve it.

While acknowledging that we have a long way to go to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, we certainly did make progress under the coalition government. Under the 11 years of the previous government, incremental progress occurred across all sectors of Indigenous education as a result of targeted federal government programs such as the one we are speaking about today in the House.

We know that Indigenous participation in the vocational and educational training area improved in all locations between 1996 and 2005, with much of this improvement occurring in remote areas. Indigenous higher education graduates also continued to have higher take-up rates into full-time employment. A notable contribution toward this improvement was the former coalition government’s funding towards tutorial assistance to help Indigenous students improve their literacy and numeracy.

But we still have a long way to go in improving literacy and numeracy. Trends show that Indigenous Australians fall behind the rest of the population when it comes to literacy and numeracy performance. Results from last year’s NAPLAN tests are mixed. Literacy and numeracy improvements for years 3, 5 and 7 have been countered by a decline for year 9. As the Centre for Independent Studies concluded this year in a major policy paper on Indigenous education, there is negligible improvement in student performance.

So, for a moment, let us talk about other markers of improvement. Recent reports tell us that Indigenous school retention rates from the start of high school to year 12 have risen from 30.7 per cent in 1995 to 46.5 per cent in 2008. Even with these signs of some improvement, what hope for an education does any child in this country have if we cannot even keep them in our school system? Needless to say, when it comes to Indigenous attendance in schools, there is still much to be done. We all know that the reality is that secondary education and training opportunities are limited for those living in remote communities. These young people need the extra support to become leaders, mentors and role models within their home communities.

A young Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person should and can be encouraged to undertake study or training opportunities and then return to their home town and contribute to their community through their improved knowledge, life or skill sets. I know that the member for Canning, who will make a contribution to this debate tonight, has a significant Aboriginal population and a significant interest in his electorate because of the basing of the Clontarf Foundation in Canning. I am sure he will have some success stories to share with the House and I am sure that he has seen such situations occur many times.

It is true that some of us in city seats do not see the real life examples day by day, but we do want to encourage those who are working amongst the communities. Some young people may never return to their home towns but still will create a sense of hope and opportunity for younger members of their community. This is what we need: role models who will demonstrate that education opens doors and enriches lives. There is a real need to expand on the opportunities so that Indigenous students can have these role models as their teachers and educators.

The government has made promises to Indigenous Australians through Closing the Gap, but it has failed to deliver on any real reform. But we certainly will not be opposing this bill. We want to continue supporting the work of those who are directly involved in this program. We need to give Indigenous students across our country the best possible access to quality education. I commend this bill to the House.

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